Tag Archives: content management

Interesting piece on APM’s Marketplace program (here) about the increasing importance of analytics in digital advertising. Surprise, surprise! Companies want to save money and increase productivity and, in this regard, digital media analytics (aka metrics) have been branded “transformational”.

There’s a very similar movement afoot in the translation industry. For starters, translation management systems (like GlobalLink Project Director) have been helping device manufacturers get a better handle on their translation metrics for several years now. Reports generated from TM leverage and review statistics help demonstrate reuse savings and increase translation review productivity, for example.

The next step in this (r)evolution is end-to-end digital labeling and translation analytics – a strategy that ties together translation management systems with component content management systems and guided authoring tools to maximize reuse and compliance, minimize content costs and translation turnaround…oh yeah, and metrics. Lots and lots of metrics.

On Monday, 6/1, Crimson Life Sciences officially becomes part of TransPerfect Medical Device Solutions. Here’s more information from the client notification:

You may be wondering: why the change? The language and content needs of the medical device industry have evolved significantly over the years, and the TransPerfect family of companies has met those changes by developing a wide range of services and technologies to meet the specific needs of device makers. A majority of our work now rests on integrated solutions that help clients reduce cost and risk through process automation and redesign, including:

Process Automation Technology

Labeling Automation Solutions

Validated XML Publishing Systems

Automated Website Localization

Software Design, Translation, Verification, and Testing

E-Learning Development and Localization

And more!

Throughout our 23 years in business, Crimson has come to be known as the most quality-focused translation provider in the industry. Our commitment to this goal has not changed, but our name now reflects our full range of integrated solutions for device makers.

It has been our great honor to work with our clients in the medical device industry for the past quarter-century. We look forward to providing innovative services, technologies, and systems as TransPerfect Medical Device Solutions.

Innovation takes many forms. In rare cases, it’s creation from scratch, completely novel, utterly unpredicted. More commonly, it’s a union of existing elements, combined in some new or unique way and adjusted for a specific purpose. When applied to biological systems, this is called “emergence” – a higher-level system emerges from a set of lower-level components. Many medical device innovations follow this pattern. Here’s an example from one of our clients – a device that keeps a heart beating (that’s right, when you see it live, the heart is in there, pumping away: incredible) so that it can be transported over longer distances for a life saving transplant. All of the components of this remarkable device existed before they were combined in this specific manner and for this specific purpose: emergence-based innovation. The benefit of an “emergent systems” approach like this is that it reduces risk – of course, there’s the overall risk of the emergent system to consider – but the basis for the system is proven and reliable.

TransPerfect Medical Device Solutions takes a similar approach – we’ve combined validated XML publishing technology with guided authoring capabilities and translation process automation (including online translation review) to produce what we call “The EnCompass System” for labeling automation – a system that can eliminate over +50% of the cost of a traditional, document-based labeling systems: emergence-based innovation! And, our approach has the benefit of lower risk because the modules that make up the EnCompass System have been validated by the world’s leading medical device manufacturers.

The EnCompass System is tomorrow’s content management solution today – and based on industry standards (DITA/XML) so your content won’t be held hostage by proprietary formats.

You have to admit, William Blake had a flair for the bizarrely dramatic – consider his rendition of Kronos (father of the Greek gods) devouring one of the Olympians.

Translation companies might have the same reaction to eliminating DTP revenue as someone seeing this Blake painting for the first time. After all, DTP expense can account for up to 50% of the total localization budget for some manufacturers – that’s a lot of revenue for a service provider to give up.

We had a different reaction to XML for a few reasons:

> Two of the leading XML publishing systems, Vasont Systems and Astoria Development, are part of TransPerfect Medical Device Solutions – we have the tools and know-how to implement these systems.

> We know that approximately 50% of the error risk in a translation production process is due to formatting – eliminate formatting and you eliminate risk.

> It’s just the right thing to do: manufacturers are working to expand their markets by lowering unit costs so that they can serve more patients – helping them to lower costs is the same thing as expanding access to lifesaving devices for patients around the world.

So, yes, when it comes to DTP revenue we ARE “eating our young” – but it’s a good thing for manufacturers AND for patients.

For years, the device industry has lamented declining VC investment, leading to a decrease in new-company formation, innovation and the like. Well, to paraphrase the popular Mark Twain misquote, “reports of the death of medical device venture investment have been greatly exaggerated” According to FierceMedicalDevices:

“This year, medical device venture fundraising could actually increase for the first time since 2007. That’s driven by the increasingly connected healthcare environment. VCs are going wild for digital health, the promise of convergence between our healthcare systems and all the mobile, cloud, wireless and wearable technologies you could possibly imagine.”

This convergence of multiple disciplines requires a solutions approach to content management and translations – a key reason that EnCompass was created. Different content types require different treatment in translation, e.g. medical resources for anatomical content, computer/IT resources for software-related content…and testing/verification services for the finished device software.

VC investment in the device industry is focused on digital health – and these new software/hardware/network devices require an integrated approach to content management and linguistic QC that spans a number of technologies and disciplines – not just medical/anatomical. Fortunately, TransPerfect Medical Device Solutions has all the services and technologies that you need to ensure linguistic accuracy and system quality and compliance.

OK – maybe the recently reported, substantial drop in worldwide medical costs isn’t entirely due to XML publishing technologies…but it’s one good example. All across the healthcare industries, companies and providers are adopting new methods and technologies that are helping them reduce cost and – finally – contain runaway expenses.

In the medical device industry, content-related costs have been growing rapidly over the past 20 years. But recently, companies like Medtronic, J&J, and Stryker have adopted XML publishing as a powerful way to reduce turnaround, cost, and risk – making their products more price-competitive around the world.

For instance, Medtronic implemented an XML content management system from our Vasont division to cut the time and cost of their translation/localization process by 50% – as one Technical Communications Manager there said recently, “We process ten times more content with the same headcount – this wouldn’t be possible without XML.”

XML is just one of the automation technologies offered by TransPerfect Medical Device Solutions to help manufacturers lower their content cost and risk and increase productivity – or, automate the entire labeling process with our EnCompass system. At TransPerfect, we’re helping to drive down the cost of healthcare – and increase profitability for our clients!

Answer: both employ automation to reduce cost. At Walgreens, software algorithms are being used to help guide and standardize patient treatment. Based on “big data” from over 100 million patients, the pharmacy chain is proving that professional services can be semi-automated with helpful results. You can read about it here.

A similar scenario is playing out in the medical device industry. Manufacturers are learning that they can automate content by structuring it with XML/DITA. The process requires patience and effort (though easier than developing a software system for patient treatment). However, it yields big savings and risk reduction. Starting with the XML systems provided by Astoria Software and Vasont Systems, and continuing through the translation process automation technologies of the GlobalLink suite, TransPerfect Medical Device Solutions has the services, know-how, and technologies necessary to automate your content and achieve sustainable cost and risk reduction.